THE IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ISLAMIC STUDY IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Information and communication Technology (ICT) is becoming increasingly important in today’s world which is named information age because it is believed to be able to accommodate and speed up our entry into information based environment. In addition it should be accessible, relevant and delivered in an efficient manner. ICT is presently considered as a determinate factor for the success of one nation. It is a dynamic field, which has great impact on the society in several dimensions-ethical, social and political. One of the major areas that are significantly affected by this silent revolution is promoting Islamic knowledge.

In Islam all beneficial new developments in the fields of science and cultural achievements should be adopted, if they are not already present, and efforts should be made to bring them to the Muslim society, develop them and perfect them. This is a communal obligation (fard kifaya), as the Muslim scholars stated, and it requires paying attention to scientific research and allocating large sums of money to it. Those who are unfamiliar with the Qur’an might, be questioning themselves about the relationship between the Qur’an, which is a book, revealed in more than 1433 years ago and Information and Communication Technology, which is an invention of this century. Al-Qur’an is the book of knowledge and the first sources of Islamic law, which contains general principles applicable for all times and places. As the Divine Guidance is related to faith and belief, so it encompasses the practical sphere of human life as well as the spiritual aspect. The Qur’an and Sunnah therefore, have been provided with the principles as comprehensive as to offer the Muslims such solutions to their ever-emerging problems. Which on one hand, are well-balanced and consistent with the human nature; and hold good and ensure real success for them on the other hand, apart from that those problems and issues are occasioned by the circumstantial change or by the emergence of new means and hitherto unknown inventions.

The Prophet (SAW) and early Muslim scholars have possessed an exemplary model on how one should deal with the knowledge. They employed whatever means, were available at that time to access information, store, and process and distribute their ideas and knowledge. Because of their positive attitudes towards knowledge, Islam emerged as a great civilization for centuries. Islam categorized knowledge into two. The first category of knowledge is that endeared by Allah to operate through revelation. This knowledge is regarded as the highest form of knowledge and eventually is made compulsory on every Muslim to learn, comprehend and implement. The second type of knowledge is that acquired by human via rational inquiry based on experience and observation, which normally concern with worldly matter. This latter form of knowledge includes tanzur (observation), tadabbur (deliberation), tathakkur (recollection), takfakkur (consideration), tabassur (understanding) and ta’aqul (rationalization), all of which is mention in the Qur’an as mechanisms to gather knowledge. It is in the latter category lies the field of ICT. In this respect ICT is not alien to Islam. In fact, the technology have adopted and used-in a different way-by Muslim scholars in the early Islamic history. Hence, the usage of ICT to enhance the teaching and learning of Arabic and Islamic Studies is merely not a new issue in Islam. Service and applications offered by the technology can efficiently be utilized in order to distribute and increase the level of understanding the Islamic knowledge.

Therefore great efforts are being made by Muslim scholars, scientists and intellectuals in evaluating the impacts of ICT on Islam, and at the same time, initiating ways to promoting Islamic Studies and information through the use of ICT. ICT is becoming a new engine for Muslims all over the world to collect, exchange, share and spread information about Islam. Services and applications offered by the ICT technology can be efficiently used in order to distribute and increase the level of understanding of Islamic knowledge. One of the greatest benefits to be gained from the use of ICT is Internet. It can be the most useful tool to disseminate Islamic knowledge and information and can be efficiently utilized in promoting teaching. Prevalent use of ICT by Religious studies teachers, particularly Arabic and Islamic Studies teachers may be achieved by educating those of them who do not have prior knowledge of ICT. In Islam, the use of modern technology is encouraged as it helps in the development of positive thinking, the ability to innovate and drive for self improvement. Itis against this background that this study seeks to examine the impact of information and communication technology in teaching and learning of Islamic study in junior secondary school students.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The pattern of teaching and learning process today is expected to shift from the conventional method to a more dynamic and flexible one, which is learner-centred (Ezekoka and Okoli, 2012). This learner-centred approach makes students to influence the content, activities, materials and pace of learning, which places them in the centre of the learning process and enhances independent learning (Collins and O’Brien, 2003). However, despite the glaring relevance of ICT in education, coupled with the huge capital investment of both Federal and State governments through ICT driven project known as “school net” Adomi, (2006) and Okebukola (2004) and donations from Nongovernmental Organizations to Secondary schools in Nigeria, some teachers of Islamic Studies are still reluctant, ineffective and unproductive in using ICT facilities to improve students’ academic performance, especially in Islamic Studies. Beetheng and Sim (2008) asserted that, there is still a long way to go before secondary school teachers in developing countries like Nigeria will be able to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the 21st century technology and this was substantiated by Adomi (2010) who reported that 75percent of teachers in Nigerian secondary schools have little or no experience regarding ICT in education.

However, the WASSCE candidates‟ performance in Islamic Studies as reported by the chief examiners revealed that these objectives are not yet achieved due to inadequate knowledge of the subject matter. This problem as perceived could be as a result of the teaching strategies adopted on the part of the teachers. Employing the use of ICT-Driven Instructional aids through the Computer Assisted Instruction designed for teaching Islamic Studies syllabus might be of great benefit in alleviating such perceived problems. Also, observed from the examiners’ report is the inability of the Islamic Studies teachers to cover every aspect of the Islamic Studies syllabus before presenting their students for WASSCE. This might be due to some observed limitations of the traditional “chalk and talk” system of teaching which is more of a teacher-centred approach than learners-centred as practised in some schools today, thereby affecting students‟ performance at various examinations. The information technological age offers ICT instructional strategies such as Computer Assisted designed to make teaching and learning faster, easier, immediate, effective, efficient, individualize and takes care of learners‟ individual differences regardless of their gender and location. These identified problems therefore, have informed the need to conduct a study on the impact of information and communication technology in teaching and learning of Islamic study in junior secondary school students.

1.3 Research Objectives

The general objective or main objective of this study is to examine the impact of information and communication technology in teaching and learning of Islamic study in junior secondary school students. The specific objectives are:

i) To ascertain the effect on the rate at which independent learning skills acquisition will be enhanced amongst junior secondary school students taught Islamic study with the use of Computer Assisted Instruction and those taught without Computer Assisted Instruction

ii) To determine the effect of the use of Computer Assisted Instruction on gender mean performance scores junior secondary school students in Islamic study

iii) To investigate the effect of the use of Computer Assisted Instruction on the mean performance scores between rural and urban junior secondary school students in Islamic study

iv) To find out the effect of the use of Computer Assisted Instruction on the rate of acquiring independent learning skill between male and junior secondary school students in Islamic study

1.4 Research Questions

The following are some of the questions which this study intends to answer:

i) What is the effect of the rate at which independent learning skills acquisition will be enhanced amongst junior secondary school students taught Islamic study with the use of Computer Assisted Instruction and those taught without Computer Assisted Instruction?

ii) What is the effect of the use of Computer Assisted Instruction on gender mean performance scores junior secondary school students in Islamic study?

iii) What is the effect of the use of Computer Assisted Instruction on the mean performance scores between rural and urban junior secondary school students in Islamic study?

iv) What is the effect of the use of Computer Assisted Instruction on the rate of acquiring independent learning skill between male and junior secondary school students in Islamic study?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were postulated to guide the conduct of this study;

i) There is no significant difference between the mean performance scores of rural and urban students taught Islamic Study with the use of Computer Assisted Instruction.

ii) There is no significant difference between male and female SS2 students‟ rate of acquiring independent learning skill in Islamic Study with the use of Computer Assisted Instruction.

iii) There is no significant difference between gender and the mean performance scores of junior secondary school students taught Islamic Study with the use of Computer Assisted Instruction.

1.6 Significance o the Study

Teaching-learning process is a means through which the teacher, the learner, the curriculum and other variables are organized in a systematic manner to attain pre-determined goals and objectives. When used appropriately, the facilities of ICT is said to help expand access to education, strengthen the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, and raise educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. ICT offers various technologies that can be used by the humans in order to facilitate their routine activities. Using Information Technologies learners are now able to participate in learning communication throughout the world. They are independent and free in choice of their programmes of study and access to the resources. They may learn collaboratively, share information, exchange their learning experiences and work through cooperative activities in virtual learning communities. ICT help to facilitate teaching learning process in more productive fashion. Similarly, the role of teacher is also different in new settings than in the conventional system. Teacher facilitates and guides the learners in their study playing the role of a coach or mentor. Now teacher is not at the centre of the instruction and sole source of information as in conventional classrooms. In a nutshell, information technologies are restructuring teaching learning process to meet the international standards.

At the completion of this research work, it is of great importance to note that various communities, towns, states, and Nigeria in general will find the result of this research work to be beneficial to great and marvellous extent, as this research work would play an essential rule in the task of educational standard, growth and development in secondary schools. The results from this research work will also provide an ample opportunity for teachers to be aware of what role they must play in other to help students acquire knowledgeable information about one study. Again students in secondary schools will be aware of the importance of computer and other devices in teaching and learning and how they can benefit from it. The research work will also provide an ample opportunity for the researcher and other readers to obtain a first hand and high degree of information as to skills development and communication technology in secondary schools.

1.7 Scope of the Study

The study is limited to the investigation of the impact of information and communication technology in teaching and learning of Islamic study in junior secondary school students by using Kano metropolis as a case study. The researcher hopes to carry out an in-depth study basically on how Computer Assisted Instruction have enhanced the Performance of Students in Islamic study in junior secondary school students Kano State. The study hopes to cover all Students in Public Senior Secondary Schools Kano State.

1.8 Limitation of the Study

The Major Limitations of the study are:

Cost Limitation: There was a cost limitation. This means that we could not offer any gift or monetary incentives for the respondents to answer the questionnaire. This might have resulted in certain prospective respondents choosing not to respond to the questionnaire. This might not have created a motivation among respondents not to take a chance to give opinions. Time Limitation: There are two types of time limitation faced during the study. The study was done for a period of four weeks. Hence the results would reflect the impact of the time constraint. The insights of the employees were observed during the period of study. A more extensive study conducted over a larger time period or during a special period of time like when there were higher numbers of issues, can include insights from employees over a broader time period and can bring in further depth into the research.

1.9 Definition of Terms

The following terms were used in the course of this study:

Information and Communications Technology (ICT): This is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing radio, television, phones, and computer hardware and software satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.

Islamic Study: it refers to the study of Islam. Islamic studies can be seen under at least two perspectives: From a secular perspective, an Islamic study is a field of academic research whose subject is Islam as religion and civilization.